February 25, 2017 @ 3:45 pm

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The simple plot of Earth tells a story of a Ukrainian village and a political fight for the introduction of collective farms in the 1920s. A young Communist Vasyl, aided by the local Party organization, gets a tractor and re-ploughs private boundaries “on kulaks’ fields …” This enthusiasm cost him his life, yet made Vasyl a martyr, a necessary sacrifice for the new social order.

The Soviet press severely criticized the film for its “naturalism” and “physiologism”. After all, instead of glorifying collectivization, Dovzhenko advocates its political significance. The director himself admitted that he was not interested in the story per se. As a result, Earth best demonstrates Dovzhenko’s interest in human existence, which explains why the film became successful all over the world. Told by Dovzhenko, a usual story of a class struggle becomes a universal philosophical parable about life and death.

DOVZENKO TRILOGY – See all 3 for $30 or each individually

Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s ZVENYHORS-ARSENAL-EARTH trilogy is a compilation of the director’s most well-known films. These digitally-restored silent masterpieces of Dovzhenko, are now accompanied with contemporary soundtracks by FUTUREthno, Yuriy Kuznetsov and DakhaBrakha.